Improvement in the mode of squeezing and straightening tobacco



M. 0. ELSOM.

Preparing Tobacco. N0. 22,944. Patented Feb. 15, 1859. f

W/ 5 max/Wale UNITED STATES I MARTIN D. 'ELSOM, OF HOWARDSVILLE, VIRGINIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MODE OF SQUEEZING AND STRAIGHTENING TOBACCO.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No- 22,944, dated February 15, 1859.

To all whom it may concernr Be it known that I, MARTIN D. Timon, of Howardsville, in the county of Albermarle and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Squeezing and Straightening Tobacco when in Bundles, and

I for the purpose. Fig. 2 represents a vertical cross-section, and Fig. .3 represents a longitudinal vertical section through the same.

Similar letters of reference, where they ocour in the several figures, denote like parts of the apparatus in all of them.

. In the gathering and'curing of tobacco, the leaves are gathered and tied into a bundle at their stem ends, and these bundles are spread out and hungup to dry or cure. When cured, and previous to striking them, as it is termed, these bundles have heretofore been squeezed and straightened by hand, so that they will pack close. This hand operation is not only tedious and slow, but is expensive; and the object of my invention is to effect by machinery, in an expeditious and cheap but efficient manner, the same object which was .effected by the former hand manipulation,and

which I have effectually accomplished; and the nature of my invention consists in combining with a pair of pressing-rolls a straightening device through which the bundles of tobacco are drawn, thus accomplishing the whole thing at one operation.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to demore than one they may be of various sizes, to take various-sized bundles.) One of the rolls may be controlled by a spring, 1), weight, or its equivalent, to allow it to yield, when necessary, to any undue pressure, and this spring may be arranged as shown, or placed in the pillow-blocks, over thejournals of the roll, in any of the well-known ways. Gearing c is added to the rolls, so that they may be turned by means of a crank, E, by hand, though they may be driven by a belt extending from any first mover, if so desired. In front of the rolls there is astripping or straightening device, F, which may be simplyablock having'a conical or tapering opening, (I, in it opposite each groove in the rolls, or it may be a funnel-shaped piece of metal that will compress the loose ends of the bundles without fracturing the leaves.

The operation is as follows: The bundles of tobacco that are to be squeezed and straightened are inserted into the opening d, butt or stem end foremost, or the tied end, whichever it may be, and as soon as it reaches the rolls it is seized and stripped through the opening d, thus straightening or directing the leaves to a common center, and as it continues to pass through the rolls the bundle is squeezed into a suitable and compact form for being afterward pressed into a bale or packed.

With a machine of thissimple construction I lessen the'labor of squeezing and straightening the bundles over fifty per cent. and do it much better than it can be or is done by hand. Having thus fully described the nature and object of my invention, and shown how. the

same is effected, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Squeezing and straightening bundles of tobacco, with a view to their being afterward struck, by pressing them through a straight ening and compressing mechanism, substantially such as herein represented.

' M. D. ELSOM. Witnesses:

A. B. STbUGHTON, Tnos. H. UPPERMAN. 

